biteho.com

Action movie fans have long known to look to Southeast Asia for the most exciting examples of the genre. The success of 2011’s The Raid: Redemption and its 2014 sequel The Raid 2 revealed that there is a wealth of talent in Indonesia, and the new Netflix release, The Night Comes For Us, raises the stakes even higher. It’s directed by Timo Tjahjanto, a filmmaker who collaborated with Raid director Gareth Evans on the terrifying Safe Haven, part of 2013’s anthology film V/H/S 2, and has previously worked in both horror and action. It takes several stars from the Raid movies and places them in an even more insanely violent context. You won’t see a more brutal action movie this year, and providing your tolerance for broken limbs and spraying arteries is high, you’re unlikely to see a better one either.

Like most movies of this type, the plot is extremely simple. Joe Taslim plays Ito, a gangster who is part of an elite group known as the Six Seas, whose job it is to enforce the smooth running of organised crime within the Golden Triangle, the area that borders Thailand, Laos, and Myanmar. But Ito is pushed too far when he is asked to murder a young girl, so he takes the girl and goes on the run, reconnecting with his old gang. Inevitably, his former bosses want both Ito and the girl dead, so they send a seemingly never-ending army of heavily armed killers after them, including Ito’s old friend Arian (The Raid’s breakout star, Iko Uwais).

The story of a former killer seeking redemption and being hunted by his old employers is nothing new; most recently, we’ve seen Keanu Reeves play this role in the John Wick movies. But what makes The Night Comes For Us stand out is the sheer level of intense, bloody action that Tjahjanto unleashes. It’s ostensibly a martial arts movie–while there is some gunplay, most of the fighting is hand-to-hand (or knife-to-throat) combat in small spaces. But this is a world away from the stylised kung fu of Wuxia or Jackie Chan movies. Taslim, Uwais, and the other actors (including The Raid 2‘s Hammer Girl, Julie Estelle) might be unbelievably skilled martial artists, but they also sell the brutality of this fighting, as limbs are snapped, throats are cut, and heads are crushed.

The Night Comes For Us is two hours long, and in lesser hands, the frequency and intensity of the action might become boring. But Tjahjanto understands exactly how to pace the movie. He’s careful not to give us too much too soon, introducing the characters and their relationships first, as Ito rejoins his old friends and we learn of his old rivalry with Arian. When the action does explode, Tjahjanto is equally careful never to give us the same scene twice, whether it’s the grisly fight scene in a butcher’s shop, the sequence in which Ito’s gang face down dozens of machete-wielding bad guys in a cramped apartment, or the showdown between Estelle’s mysterious assassin and the two deadliest members of the Six Seas. The sheer range of weaponry employed is also impressive–there’s guns and knives, but also saws, bones, wires, wine glasses, nails, and pool balls. Basically, if you can hold it, you can kill someone with it.

It’s refreshing to watch a modern action movie that doesn’t feel the need to bombard us with fast editing; Tjahjanto lets us enjoy the skill of his performers and only cuts to a new shot when he needs to crank the excitement even further. The film doesn’t have the gliding camerawork of many Asian action movies; much of it is handheld, ensuring we get up close to the mayhem. Uwais might have the second billing in the cast, but he and his stunt team were responsible for the film’s insanely dangerous-looking stunt choreography, and this, combined with Tjahjanto’s experience in the horror genre and obvious love of gore, results in a movie that will satisfy fans of both genres.

Beyond the violence–and let’s face it, there’s not that much beyond it–the plot is no more than competently told and acted. Uwais and Taslim are not subtle actors, but they have plenty of screen charisma and fully commit to their roles. There are the expected twists and double-crosses, some clichéd villains, and characters whose motivations are left deliberately vague (Tjahjanto is planning another two movies). And ultimately, viewers who like their action movies funnier, slicker, and less gory might find this one a bit much. But for those who want an action movie that pushes the genre and delivers some of the most jaw-droppingly violent fight scenes ever filmed, The Night Comes For Us more than delivers the bloody goods.

EA has announced that Respawn–the developer behind the critically acclaimed first-person shooter Titanfall 2–is scheduled to launch multiple games prior to the end of 2019. Neither EA nor Respawn has confirmed what those games might be.

The announcement came about during a quarterly earnings call, when EA CEO Andrew Wilson stated, “Across multiple studies, we have new projects underway, including games from Respawn that are slated to launch by next holiday season.” Respawn is currently working on three titles, so Wilson’s reference to “games” as opposed to just “a game” implies at least two are coming out next year. As of right now, Respawn is working on Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order, another Titanfall game, and an unnamed VR title.

Details concerning all three games are fairly vague, but Respawn CEO Vince Zampella was able to confirm a few details about Jedi Fallen Order at E3 2018–including that the game is scheduled for 2019’s holiday season. So it’s safe to say that Jedi Fallen Order is one of the games in question, but whether Respawn is also close to finishing its third Titanfall game, the unnamed VR title, or both remains unknown.

Zampella has spoken to GameSpot about Titanfall before, admitting that Titanfall 2’s sales should have been much better and citing the game’s launch window between Battlefield 1 and Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare as a serious detriment. With that being the case, it would be a little odd for EA to have Respawn launch another Titanfall game during the normally busy holiday season. So if the next Titanfall is coming out in 2019, we imagine it would be coming out earlier in the year. But we’ll have to wait and see.

Although it’s not much, we do have a bit more info about Jedi Fallen Order. The game takes place between the events of Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope and puts players in the role of a Jedi Padawan who escaped Order 66. Zampella describes the game as taking place during one of Star Wars’ darkest periods, and promises players will be able to use a lightsaber.

You need a javascript enabled browser to watch videos.

It’s the Destiny 2 patch we’ve been waiting for. The October 30 patch for the game, which drops alongside the weekly reset, brings a load of quality-of-life improvements to Destiny 2, including a handful that should make getting the best loot in the game a little less frustrating.

Along with Update 2.0.5 itself, Bungie released patch notes that detail some behind-the-scenes alterations that won’t be super obvious to players, but should lessen the grind for some Exotics and unique weapons a little less grindy.

The change that’s likely to affect the most players is the alteration to Exotic drops. Right now, there’s a low chance that players will get Exotic engram drops from enemies while they play through the game, but the item that comes out of those drops is random, which results in a lot of duplicate Exotics. Bungie has altered those drops so that Destiny 2 takes your collection of Exotics into account when determining which item is in the engram you receive. Exotics you don’t have will be weighted higher than those you do, which should increase the chance of getting something new out of random drops. Bungie also changed things so that when you do get a duplicate Exotic, the chances that it’s a piece of armor, rather than a gun, will be higher–because armor has random perks and guns don’t. That way, even if you do get a duplicate Exotic armor, there’s a chance it’ll be different or better than what you already have.

More players should have a chance at getting another new Exotic that came with Forsaken, Destiny 2’s latest expansion: Malfeasance. The Exotic hand cannon can only be earned through a series of quests, and those quests only kick off when players happen to encounter and kill a specific Primeval enemy when playing Gambit matches, called the Ascendant Servitor. Update 2.0.5 ups the likelihood that the Ascendant Servitor will appear in Gambit matches, which should give more players a chance at unlocking Malfeasance.

In the area of non-Exotic unique loot, Bungie has made grinding Nightfall Strikes more fruitful. Each Nightfall has specific loot that only drops in it, but the chances of receiving that stuff are usually pretty low. Destiny 2 now tracks how many Nightfalls you’ve played without receiving a unique drop, and each time you don’t get one, the chances you will in the next Nightfall are increased.

There are a bunch of other balancing and rule changes that come in Update 2.0.5, which you can read about on Bungie’s website. They also include a nerf to Sleeper Simulant, a gun that has dominated Gambit and Crucible matches since Forsaken came out, that’s sure to bum out a few players–and probably make several more happy to use a different weapon for a change.

Red Dead Redemption 2 hearkens back to a simpler time when America’s paper money wasn’t yet inflated. Ten dollars was a lot of money back then! But with one weird trick you can render the game economy functionally meaningless by roping in thousands of dollars in seconds.

As found by Mida Life Crisis on YouTube, you can exploit a glitch to trick the game into thinking you haven’t picked up a gold bar, even as it repeatedly gets added to your inventory. It basically boils down to finding the sheriff’s office in the ruined town of Limpany. As detailed in the video, the desk in this office has a gold bar, but you can break it by saving your game just as Arthur bends down to pick it up and then reloading the save. That puts several duplicates of the gold bar in the desk overlapping, so you can pick up 30 of them at a time. That sells for a cash value of $15,000, which basically makes you the Old West version of a lottery winner.

When we tested this for ourselves, we used a slightly different method. Instead of bending down and saving, we simply saved after opening the lockbox, but before taking either of the two items–a gold bar and a pamphlet. Traveling back to the lockbox revealed only the gold bar without the pamphlet. It’s crucial to hold the Take button so that Arthur picks up gold bars continuously. Also, be sure to load up the correct save, because in another of our tests, hitting the wrong one seems to have broken the glitch from then on.

Of course, be warned that like any bug, taking advantage of this could have unforeseen consequences, so use at your own risk. If you do want to take advantage, keep in mind that exploits like this tend to be patched or hotfixed relatively quickly to secure the integrity of the game. If you want to ill-got some gains, you’d better be hasty.

This isn’t the only way to game the system in Red Dead 2, and there are certainly other ways to make some money quickly. Check out some of our favorite cheats, and while you’re at it find where to get the best horses and animal pelts. Plus you should read up on what exactly to do with that legendary bear pelt.

Different genres in horror come and go in waves, at times, slashers dominate the theaters, and sometimes, supernatural thrillers are all Hollywood puts out. However, one genre that’s been floating around since the late-60s are zombie movies, and 50 years later, they’re still a predominant part of horror films.

The first zombie movie was White Zombie from 1932, which revolved around Voodoo bringing people back from the dead. Then, in 1959, a zombie-like creature was used in the infamous Plan 9 From Outer Space. However, no one had as big as an impact on the horror sub-genre than the late writer/director George Romero.

In 1968, Romero redefined what a zombie is, without ever using the term, in the classic horror movie Night of the Living Dead. It wasn’t magic or a voodoo curse that reanimated the dead, it was a disease. While the specifics of what this disease is or how it specifically happened are never fully explained, Romero created a shared universe that gave the audience different perspectives from the same human extinction-level event.

Even though Romero passed away, there still may be more films in his zombie cinematic universe. The writer had more projects in development, which we could eventually see on the big screen. However, as of now, there are only six zombie movies from Romero, and here they are, ranked by their scores on Metacritic.

Disclosure: Metacritic is a CBS Interactive property, GameSpot’s parent company.

Like many other big games, the soon-to-launch Fallout 76 will feature microtransactions. But Bethesda boss Pete Hines doesn’t want you to worry about them. Speaking to GameSpot at PAX Aus, Hines stressed that Bethesda will only offer cosmetics to buy with real money, not items that can affect gameplay.

This is a crucial point given that, unlike previous entries in the series, Fallout 76 is a multiplayer-focused game where players have the opportunity to go head-to-head with other human combatants. Being able to purchase better weapons could throw off the balance and give players the ability to pay to win, essentially, Hines said.

Fallout 76’s microtransactions come in the form of Atoms, which you can buy with real money in the Atomic Shop or unlock through gameplay. Bethesda has yet to announce the price points for Atoms, but whatever the case, Hines said Bethesda will reward players with heaps of Atoms for completing certain tasks and objectives in the wasteland.

“If you don’t want to spend money in the Atomic shop for cosmetic stuff you don’t have to. We give you a sh*tload of Atoms just for playing the game,” Hines said. “Folks that want to spend money on whatever the hell it is because they don’t have enough Atoms, they can, but it’s not, ‘I’m now better playing against other players because I spent money.’ It’s not pay-to-win. And it’s not loot crates.”

Hines went on to say that Bethesda has always tried to be “on the right side of the line” as it relates to microtransaction systems within its games. Hines acknowledged that it can be a “pretty ambiguous line,” but the studio has always strived to avoid situations that feel like money-grabs. Like other publishers, Bethesda has learned the best way forward by following industry trends and gathering feedback from players.

Fallout 76’s DLC packs, whatever form they end up taking, will be completely free. That’s a change of pace for the franchise, as Bethesda previously sold a variety of extra content for games like Fallout 3 and Fallout 4. Giving Fallout 76’s extra content away for free will hopefully make players feel like they are not being taken advantage of, Hines said.

“All the content we ever put out for Fallout 76–all the DLC, all the post-launch stuff–is going to be free. That’s important. And to say, the Atomic shop is cosmetic stuff. To make sure folks understand–look there’s a line. There are people who have crossed it, but we’re going to stay on the right side of it in terms of the things you can spend money on and how this stuff works and what you’re getting for your $60,” Hines said. “That you know, when they put out new content or features or whatever, I’m getting that stuff for free. That feels right.”

Everyone who pre-orders Fallout 76 on Xbox One gets 500 Atoms right away, but how much value this really offers won’t be clear until Bethesda reveals the cost of in-game items. Microsoft’s partnership with Bethesda goes further, as the company is also releasing a 1 TB Xbox One X bundle that comes with a copy of Fallout 76.

It appears Bethesda is following the model of games like Overwatch and Fortnite in that it will only allow players to spend real money on cosmetics, not items or abilities that actually affect the game. 2017’s Star Wars: Battlefront II originally featured a microtransaction system that allowed players to spend real money on items and weapons that actually affected the game. Following an uproar, Electronic Arts and developer DICE reversed course, and now the game only lets you buy cosmetics.

Another element of note in this story is how Fallout 76’s new perk system delivers them through Perk Cards. After this was announced, many wondered if players would be able to buy these with real money. However, Bethesda confirmed that it will not allow players to spend real money to acquire new perks.

Fallout 76 launches on November 14 for PS4, Xbox One, and PC. Players who pre-order can start playing early through limited-time beta testing sessions; all progress carries forward. In other news, Bethesda has confirmed that Fallout 76 won’t launch on Nintendo Switch because it “wasn’t doable.”